How to hide some nds files

[Indy13]

Hi friends,

It's all in the question, is there a way to hide certain .nds files in the R4 menu?

To develop the subject a little more, to better organize my menu, I am looking for a way to hide certain .nds files in my R4 menu, some are directly in the root of my SD card and others are in directories like .nds files from gbarunner2 and nds-bootstrap which come with the TWL++ pack for flashcards.

Currently, I have installed all my emulators standalone, so I use launchers to use them, so I do not need to see the binaries of these emulators in the main menu of my R4, only the binaries of the launchers are useful, if I found part of the solution by putting the nds files of my emulators in subdirectories, I still have some left which are either at the root or in directories (notably those of TWL++) .

What I would ultimately like to do is to only allow the binary files of my launchers and commercial ROMs that are not compatible with YSMenu to appear in my R4 menu.

I tried to modify the moonshell2 hidepath.ini file by designating (with their names and paths) the files I wanted to hide but without success.

I also tried (without really believing it) to modify the attributes of these files via my PC by designating them as hidden files but the result is the same, they continue to appear, in fact the only way I found to hide .nds files it's in the moonshell configuration menu but that doesn't suit me because this option hides all the .nds files (without doing case by case) and only in the list of objects visualized by moonshell and not in menu R4.

So here is my problem, how to hide .nds files case by case in the R4 menu and regardless of their location.

FYI, my R4 is a 2016 R4 Gold Pro SDHC.



Thank you in advance for those who took the time to read me.

 

[ryba]

Well, I have standalone emulators in root directory and some files in folders. The folders are all hidden by PC attributes. I have mostly gb, gbc, pce roms there...
I think if you use launchers, put emulator .nds files to hidden folder and point launchers to them?

 

[Indy13]

Hi @ryba thanks for your answer, that's what I did for a good part of them, in fact, on my R4 menu, I have three launchers, HBmenu 0.4.1 for old homebrews, HBmenu 0.7.1 for newer homebrews not requiring a memory expansion pak and YSmenu for recent homebrews requiring a memory expansion pak, for commercial DS games and for TWL++

I grouped all my .nds files (those of the emulators) in subdirectories contained in a common directory called "data"

And all my roms are stored in subdirectories (in the name of each system) in a directory called "ROMS".

When my .nds files are stored in subdirectories contained in a directory, no problem, I don't see them appear.

But I have some exceptions like MarcaDS or JenesisDS which only work at the root (with a small variation for MarcaDS but I won't elaborate to avoid confusion)

In fact, my organization is as follows, in the data directory are my emulators and in the roms directory are my games including my commercial DS roms (which are not directly visible since they are in a subdirectory called "Nintendo DS " and which do not need to be because I launch them with YSmenu)

The problem is as follows, in my organization on my R4 menu I renamed my launchers and JenesisDS by putting numbers in front (01HBmenu1, 02HBmenu2, 03YSmenu, 04JenesisDS) in order to view them first (unfortunately I cannot rename MarcaDS because otherwise the EFS search does not work, however I have to keep a copy of the binary file in my root otherwise I cannot launch the copy of the binary that I put in one of my emulator subdirectories)

Besides that all the .nds files (GBArunner, nds-bootstrap) contained in the _nds directory of TWL++ appear because to work they are in a directory and not in a subdirectory.

Basically to summarize I would like to hide the .nds files contained in the _nds directory of TWL++ and the .nds file of MarcaDS which is at the root of my SD card in order to only let the 3 launchers, JenesisDS and the commercial DS roms which do not work with YSmenu but which work with the R4 menu of my flashcard.

I know it's a little complicated to visualize, but I'll take some screenshots this evening when I get home from work to clearly illustrate my points.

 

[ryba]

The problem is my english is kind of lame and I don't have much time to think about it properly also..
So, sorry for me..
So.. What is the point of launchers?
I have like JenesisDS renamed to 0_0_SEGA and macraDS to 0_0_Frogger (cause I ran only frogger through marcaDS..)
I run nds file and it takes me directly to games directory (MAMEroms for marca and SEGA for Jenesis - don't remember, where is the config for Jenesis..) to select specific game for that system. That's how this works for me on Twilightmenu++
on R4 menu I didn't try marca od jenesis...

 

[Indy13]

The problem is my english is kind of lame and I don't have much time to think about it properly also..
So, sorry for me..

Don't worry, my English is not very good either, I use an online translator most of the time, but I understood your previous post, there are no problems

So.. What is the point of launchers?

As I said in a previous post, the advantage of having several launchers is in widening the compatibility of hombrews for example HBmenu 0.4.1 is very suitable for old hombrews which were compiled using old libraries, it is also compatible with EZ Flash 3in1, version 0.7.1 of HBmenu does not work with EZ Flash 3in1 and more recent homebrews work very well with this version while this is not the case with the old version of HBmenu. Besides that, YSmenu is a bit of a mix of the two, old and new homebrews work and it is compatible with EZ Flash 3in1 but as always there are some small exceptions, so that's why I uses multiple launchers. Concerning TWL++, I only use it to launch dsiware games, having more than 10,000 games (all emulators combined of course) installed on my SD card, it is easier to choose a game from a list rather than by icon.


So for me even if I greatly appreciate the work of the team which gave birth to TWL++, with my configuration, TWL++ = dsiware only, note also that I work with a DS Lite and not with a DSi so again, think in terms of configuration and optimized compatibility only with TWL++ this would reduce (I think) the possibilities that the DS Lite can offer, more is always better than less.


To come back to my configuration, I made some screenshots of the backup of my R4 in order to be clearer (I hope) in my comments.
This is what's in the root of my R4's SD card :

As you can see at the end of the scummvm .ini file, we find the three launchers:

- in 01, hbmenu 0.4.1 which I renamed 01RetroMenu
- in 02, hbmenu 0.7.1 which I renamed 02Boot
- in 03, YSmenu which I renamed 03YSMenu
- in 04, JenesisDS which I renamed 04JenesisDS

The idea being simple, the first 4 icons are dedicated to retrogaming, by default, these are the apps that we see first when we turn on the console and go to the R4 menu which gives this result :



From there, as I told you in my previous post, I grouped the .nds files from my homebrews in subdirectories stored in a common directory called data.

For example, I want to play the NeoGeo game, it's an emulator compiled using an old library, so I know that to launch my emulator, I'm going to use hbmenu 0.4.1 (the one I renamed 01RetroMenu) then go to the common directory called "data" like this:



I select the directory dedicated to the launcher so "01 - RetroMenu" :

I have two versions of NeoDS installed, a normal one and one compatible with EZ Flash 3in1, I decide to use the normal version, so I choose the first directory 01 - Menu Emulateurs (Emulators Menu in English) :

I'm going to 01 - Consoles :

Then in NeoGeo :


And finally I launch my .nds file :



you can see the path in this last screen print, of course it is made from a backup which placed in the Videos folder of my PC, we must therefore not take into account the first directory but the second "sdr4 -128-0224" which means 128gb sd card for R4 backup February 2024 is the root which gives in practice this:

SD_root/data/01 - RetroMenu/01 - Menu Emulateurs/01 - Consoles/NeoGeo


So this is how my organization works, it's a bit complex, I admit it but at the same time when you try to run more than 70 systems on a DS Lite it can lead to this kind of convoluted setup!
Now I'm going to come back to launching commercial ROMs, for this I use YSMenu, once launched I go to my ROMS directory and to my Nintendo DS directory after I go to the directory where the game I want to play is:









The problem with YSMenu is that not all games are compatible and very often the AP patches do not work, @Nikokaro proposed a good solution, which is to switch roms not compatible with YSMenu to the root to launch them directly with the native R4 software which is a good solution however, and it is for this reason that I would like to hide certain .nds files, that is if the .nds files which are located in subdirectories are not not visible, others that are in directories are visible (be careful to dissociate the subtlety that exists between directory and subdirectory in my remarks) which has the effect of giving this result:







Some .nds files appear and mix with commercial roms, notably those placed in the _nds directory of TWL++ (see picture below) which makes the R4 menu a bit confusing, ideally it would be nice to be able to hide .nds files which are not launched from the basic menu.




Maybe @RocketRobz can help me on this last point, IDK, maybe @SylverReZ or @DeadSkullzJr with their great knowledge of flashcards.

My question remains, is there a way to hide certain .nds files (case by case) no matter where they are stored on an sd card ?

 

[RocketRobz]

Don't worry, my English is not very good either, I use an online translator most of the time, but I understood your previous post, there are no problems


As I said in a previous post, the advantage of having several launchers is in widening the compatibility of hombrews for example HBmenu 0.4.1 is very suitable for old hombrews which were compiled using old libraries, it is also compatible with EZ Flash 3in1, version 0.7.1 of HBmenu does not work with EZ Flash 3in1 and more recent homebrews work very well with this version while this is not the case with the old version of HBmenu. Besides that, YSmenu is a bit of a mix of the two, old and new homebrews work and it is compatible with EZ Flash 3in1 but as always there are some small exceptions, so that's why I uses multiple launchers. Concerning TWL++, I only use it to launch dsiware games, having more than 10,000 games (all emulators combined of course) installed on my SD card, it is easier to choose a game from a list rather than by icon.


So for me even if I greatly appreciate the work of the team which gave birth to TWL++, with my configuration, TWL++ = dsiware only, note also that I work with a DS Lite and not with a DSi so again, think in terms of configuration and optimized compatibility only with TWL++ this would reduce (I think) the possibilities that the DS Lite can offer, more is always better than less.


To come back to my configuration, I made some screenshots of the backup of my R4 in order to be clearer (I hope) in my comments.
This is what's in the root of my R4's SD card :
View attachment 422438
As you can see at the end of the scummvm .ini file, we find the three launchers:

- in 01, hbmenu 0.4.1 which I renamed 01RetroMenu
- in 02, hbmenu 0.7.1 which I renamed 02Boot
- in 03, YSmenu which I renamed 03YSMenu
- in 04, JenesisDS which I renamed 04JenesisDS

The idea being simple, the first 4 icons are dedicated to retrogaming, by default, these are the apps that we see first when we turn on the console and go to the R4 menu which gives this result :

View attachment 422442

From there, as I told you in my previous post, I grouped the .nds files from my homebrews in subdirectories stored in a common directory called data.

For example, I want to play the NeoGeo game, it's an emulator compiled using an old library, so I know that to launch my emulator, I'm going to use hbmenu 0.4.1 (the one I renamed 01RetroMenu) then go to the common directory called "data" like this:

View attachment 422448

I select the directory dedicated to the launcher so "01 - RetroMenu" :
View attachment 422446
I have two versions of NeoDS installed, a normal one and one compatible with EZ Flash 3in1, I decide to use the normal version, so I choose the first directory 01 - Menu Emulateurs (Emulators Menu in English) :
View attachment 422447
I'm going to 01 - Consoles :
View attachment 422452
Then in NeoGeo :
View attachment 422453

And finally I launch my .nds file :

View attachment 422454

you can see the path in this last screen print, of course it is made from a backup which placed in the Videos folder of my PC, we must therefore not take into account the first directory but the second "sdr4 -128-0224" which means 128gb sd card for R4 backup February 2024 is the root which gives in practice this:

/data/01 - RetroMenu/01 - Emulators Menu/01 - Consoles/NeoGeo


So this is how my organization works, it's a bit complex, I admit it but at the same time when you try to run more than 70 systems on a DS Lite it can lead to this kind of convoluted setup!
Now I'm going to come back to launching commercial ROMs, for this I use YSMenu, once launched I go to my ROMS directory and to my Nintendo DS directory after I go to the directory where the game I want to play is:

View attachment 422459

View attachment 422460

View attachment 422461

View attachment 422462

The problem with YSMenu is that not all games are compatible and very often the AP patches do not work, @Nikokaro proposed a good solution, which is to switch roms not compatible with YSMenu to the root to launch them directly with the native R4 software which is a good solution however, and it is for this reason that I would like to hide certain .nds files, that is if the .nds files which are located in subdirectories are not not visible, others that are in directories are visible (be careful to dissociate the subtlety that exists between directory and subdirectory in my remarks) which has the effect of giving this result:

View attachment 422463

View attachment 422464

View attachment 422465

Some .nds files appear and mix with commercial roms, notably those placed in the _nds directory of TWL++ (see picture below) which makes the R4 menu a bit confusing, ideally it would be nice to be able to hide .nds files which are not launched from the basic menu.
View attachment 422466

View attachment 422467

Maybe @RocketRobz can help me on this last point, IDK, maybe @SylverReZ or @DeadSkullzJr with their great knowledge of flashcards.

My question remains, is there a way to hide certain .nds files (case by case) no matter where they are stored on an sd card ?

You can use TWiLight Menu++ to select the .nds file, and then press the X button for TWLMenu++ to ask whether you want to delete or hide the file. When asked, press the Y button to hide it.

 

[Indy13]

You can use TWiLight Menu++ to select the .nds file, and then press the X button for TWLMenu++ to ask whether you want to delete or hide the file. When asked, press the Y button to hide it.

Indeed this method works under TWL++ but if I restart the native menu of my R4, I still see these .nds files

 

[RocketRobz]

Indeed this method works under TWL++ but if I restart the native menu of my R4, I still see these .nds files

Hmm, in that case, if you don't plan on using TWLMenu++ as a primary menu, I guess you're out of luck.

 

[SylverReZ]

The cart you have should support YSMenu and TWL++, whichever kernel you prefer.

 

[Indy13]

Thank you for your answers guys, in the end, it's a bit what I feared, after all it's not catastrophic either, it's more a question of aesthetics than practicality, I'm going to sort through my roms, the roms requiring AP patches will be launched with the kernel of my R4, the others with YSmenu and the dsiware games with TWL++ and like that I will be able to continue all these great menus despite their own particularities.